Battle of al-Huwayhi

The Battle of al-Huwayhi (late October 1798) was a battle of the Egyptian Campaign of the French Revolutionary Wars that occurred at al-Huwayhi, west of Damanhour. British admiral Horatio Nelson landed an army of 294 troops under Sydney Smith at el-Hamam in northern Egypt (to the west of Alexandria) before withdrawing back to Cyprus, and the small British army posed a threat to the cities of Alexandria and Damanhour. The French general Jean-Baptiste Kleber and his 1,188 French troops decided to halt their march on the French-held Egyptian capital of Cairo to respond to this threat, and the French army marched north and attacked the British at al-Huwayhi. The French cavalry charged the British artillery on both flanks as the French infantry fixed bayonets and charged the British regiments, and the battle was a gruesome melee fight on a medieval scale. The British army was nearly wiped out, with French cavalry pursuing and slaying several retreating British soldiers. Smith barely managed to escape, and his army was annihilated. The British would not attempt to invade Egypt again until 1800.